This versatile artist, who had spent his 20's in New Zealand farming sheep, became novelist, playwright and film exhibitor on his return to Britain in 1918. Eventually he would observe success with Le lien brisé (1928), which he directed and acted in and which was based on his own novel and play. He is better remembered, however, for his character portrayals of oily types, many of them upper-crust cads - such as Cardinal Richelieu in Les trois louf'quetaires (1939). (In his Hollywood debut, he had portrayed King Louis XIII in the 1935 version of that same Dumas classic.)
